Items, whether tangible or intangible goods, or access to attractions, events, venues, or other services, may be priced by a vendor, agent, broker or retailer based on a cost or expense and a desired profit margin or markup. At the expense of profit, discounts may be provided to purchasers of the items, typically to encourage greater demand. Typically, these discounts are applied as a flat percentage across all items. This is practical, because the profit margin is typically also applied as a flat percentage. For example, regardless of each individual item's cost, if a vendor prices different items with a 50% markup, the vendor can then grant a 10% discount without fear that the discounted price will be less than cost.
However, particularly where a broker or agent is selling items from multiple vendors, each item may have a different markup, determined by a net price the broker or agent has to pay to the vendor when each item is sold and a retail price set by the vendor. For example, a first item may have an 80% markup, while a second item may have a 20% markup. Because the items may have wildly different net and retail prices, the cash value of the markups may be unpredictable. For example, a large markup on an inexpensive item may be negligible compared to a small markup on a very expensive item.
Accordingly, a non-intelligent system that applies the same discount across all items may result in some items being priced below cost or below a desired profit margin. As a result, retailers using such non-intelligent systems may not be able to balance customer discounts against desired business goals or margins. Conversely, in some instances, a discount applied across items with widely different costs and retail prices may result in a sale price that represents only a negligible discount for the customer and greater profits than are required by the retailer. However, without an intelligent system able to balance these costs and prices, additional price reductions cannot be easily passed on to the customer.